AUDUBON JOHN JAMES (1785 1851)

AUDUBON JOHN JAMES (1785 1851) American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. Autograph MANUSCRIPT of the episode entitled The Lost Portfolio from his renowned Ornithological Biography with a few autograph revisions, [1830], 2 and a half pages, in English. Dimensions: 416 x 260 mm. cloth articulated box smooth green morocco spine, gilt... moreAUDUBON JOHN JAMES (1785 1851)
American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. Autograph MANUSCRIPT of the episode entitled The Lost Portfolio from his renowned Ornithological Biography with a few autograph revisions, [1830], 2 and a half pages, in English. Dimensions: 416 x 260 mm. cloth articulated box smooth green morocco spine, gilt lettering.
An extraordinary manuscript of a chapter of Audubon’s great work, included in his Ornithological Biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America ; accompanied by descriptions of the objects represented in the work entitled The Birds of America, and interspersed with delineations of American scenery and manners (Edinburgh, Adam & Charles Black, 1835, constituting pages 564-567 of Volume III, with some variants). When Audubon wrote the Ornithological Biography, it underwent intense competition with three other bird books being produced at the same time. The ornithologist expected his “Episodes” would make the diff erence and mark his success. In this “episode”, Audubon recounts the loss of one of his portfolios and its subsequent recovery. « Whilst at the City of Natchez on the 31s Inst[ant] of Dec[embe]r 1820, my kind friend and relative N[icholas] Berthoud Esqr. proposed to me to accompany him in his Keel Boat to New Orleans, and I gladly accepted his off er. At one o’clock the steam boat Columbus hauled off from the Landing and took our bark in tow being secured to her by two ropes attached to our bows. The steamer was soon under full head way and little else than the thought of soon reaching the Mississippi’s Emporium of Commerce fi lled our minds. Toward evening however several enquiries were made respecting particular portions of the Luggage amongst which was to have been, one of my Portfolios, which contained a number of Drawings made whilst gliding down on the Rivers Ohio and Mississippi from Cincinnati, to Natchez, and some of which were very valuable to my collection as being very raw, and some indeed hitherto unfi gured and perhaps undescribed species. The Port Folio was not found on board, and I recollect, sadly too late, that I had brought it under my arm to the margin of the stream and there had left it to the care of one of my Friend’s servants, who in the hurry of our departure had neglected to take it on Board. Besides the Drawings of Birds there was a sketch in black chalk in this collection to which I always felt greatly attached whilst absent from home, but alas now I was set to the mere recollection of the features of the objects from whence my Life’s happiness as a man has been rendered interestingly happy.» provenance Sale Christie’s New York 26 May 1977, lot 91; Sale Christie’s New York, 18 November 1988, lot 20; Profi les in History, 18 December 2012, lot 132. Digitized version of the published text: https://www.biodiversitylibrary. org/item/103782#page/584/mode/1up.